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DefCamp 2023 offers white hacker competitors EUR 100,000 prizes
The prizes offered to "white hat" (ethical) hackers in the DefCamp-Capture the Flag (D-CTF) competition, one of the largest initiatives of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe, amount to EUR 100,000 at this year's DefCamp annual hacking and cyber security conference, told Agerpres.
The number of teams that initially registered for the preliminary phase of the competition exceeded 600, and of these the top 16 were invited to the final round. The competitors are white hat hackers from Romania, Italy, Norway, Germany, Greece, France, Austria and Croatia.
"White hat" or ethical hackers are those who identify and remedy vulnerabilities, usually before malicious attackers do.
At DefCamp 2023, alongside the Hacking Village activities, there will be Bug Bounty or DefCamp-Capture the Flag sessions, where participants can win prizes totalling EUR 100,000. Participants will be able to choose from a range of hardware, software and network hacking, digital forensics or reverse engineering challenges.
On the DefCamp 2023 conference stage, for two days, experts in the field will address a number of topical issues. This year's conference will feature Chris Kubecka (CEO and Founder of HypaSec NL) - advisor on state-level cyber incidents, cyber warfare and cyber espionage, Tudor Damian (Cybersecurity & Cloud Advisor D3 Cyber) - IT consultant who will explore the changes brought about by the NIS 2 Directive, Abdullah Joseph - Senior Security Researcher.
Topics of discussion will include: cryptographic authentication, vulnerabilities of cloud technology, smart devices or the telecom industry and the impact of automation in defence strategies.
According to an international study, presented at the 13th DefCamp event on 23-24 November, the number of incidents caused by ransomware attacks is expected to increase 79% in 2023 compared to the previous year.
"The developments in the economic and geopolitical situation brings new challenges to cyber security, with ethical hackers facing a significant increase in cyber threats. In 2020, 20% of attacks were ransomware attacks, according to an international study, affecting almost a quarter of companies. In 2023, the number of data breaches caused by ransomware attacks and made public increased by 79%. (...) Historically, fraud attempts increase during recessions, and attackers can adapt to the market, lowering the prices of hacking tools and making cybercrime even more affordable. For example, after the 2008-2009 recession, cyber attacks increased 40%," say the conference organisers.
The DefCamp 2023 event is organised by the Cyber Security Research Center from Romania (CCSIR) and supported by Bit Sentinel, Booking Holdings and Keysight Technologies Romania.
Since 2011 and to date, DefCamp has managed to attract almost 11,000 participants from over 55 countries and 150 cities to Bucharest.
